Description

ASHPRINGTON
SX85NW Langham House including
6/16 Gateway Adjoining on
North
30.10.89

GV II

Parish School and integral school master's house, converted into one house.
Mid C19; it was built either in 1847 (Whites Directory of 1850) or circa 1865
(Kelly's Directory of 1902), see below. Dressed shale rubble with local lime-
stone quoins and chamfered high plinth. Bath stone window dressings. Steeply
pitched slate roof with gabled ends with decorative wooden bargeboards. The
right hand gable end has finial replaced. The left hand end has projecting
stack rising through the gable and with a weathered cap. A rendered lateral
stack at the back with set-offs. 2 small metal ventilators on the ridge, only
the right had retains its conical cap.
Plan: A 4-bay open-hall school room heated from a rear lateral stack and
entered from a large front porch; the fifth bay at the left hand end was the
school-master's accommodation; it was 2 storeys with a gable end stack. There
is a basement below the left had end of the building where the ground level
is much lower. The open hall has been extended into the schoolmaster's
accommodation by the removal of the partition and floor at this end and
another partition has been inserted dividing the hall into 2 bays at the left
end and 3 bays at the right end. In the late C20 a single storey flat roofed
addition has been built at the rear, probably over the playground.
Exterior: Single storey hall with a basement under the left hand end; the
left hand end was originally floored with a first floor room in the attic.
Asymmetrical 4-window range of 2 and 3-light windows with 2-centred headed
lights and diamonds-shaped leaded panes. To the right of centre a large
projecting gabled porch with ornate bargeboards with finial and pendant, a
lancet on the front and a chamfered 4-centred arch doorway on the right had
side with a C19 plank door; the left had side of the porch has a small
quatrefoil window. The ground at the left hand end is much lower and here
there are window openings in the basement with chamfered surrounds. The
window above at the left hand end is of 2 lights and above that a gabled
dormers with ornate bargeboards and casement with leaded panes.
The right hand north gable end has a stone 2-light 4-centred arch window with
Y-tracery and leaded panes. The rear elevation has a lateral stack to the
left of centre and 3 large segmented headed window openings, the right had
with a 12-pane sash, the others are C20 casements. Below is a flat-roofed
single storey C20 addition which was probably built over the playground.
Adjoining the right hand (north) end a short section of wall with a doorway
to the playground at the rear; The doorway has a chamfered 4-centred arch and
a boarded door.
Interior: A 5-bay roof, its chamfered principal rafters have curved feet
forming Tudor-shaped arches like raised cruck trusses, on moulded corbels.
The left hand bay was originally separated by a partition and floored forming
the 2-storey schoolmaster's house. This partition and floor have been
removed and another wooden partition inserted separating the 2 left hand end
bays.
Note: The uncertainty about the correct date of the school is because White's
Directory of 1850 states that the parish school is "a neat building in
Elizabethan style erected 1847 by Richard Durant" of Sharpham House, whereas
Kelly's Directory of 1902 maintains it was built of material from the church
house which was demolished in 1865. The date 1847 is more likely on stylistic
grounds and there is no sign of reused dressed stone. Furthermore White
refers to the church house in the same 1850 edition, therefore the two
buildings must have coexisted.

Listing NGR: SX8187157120

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26513188

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)